Downhauling the NP ShearTip

Along the same thread as to how much downhaul is enough.

I have been rigging a 9.5 NP V8 ShearTip with recommened mast and have been downhauling and outhauling to specs as printed on the sail. When I do this, the ShearTip and whole top panel seems limp and flops to the side, very unattractive and not exactly what the Pro's sails look like. Sailing in relatively light winds the sail seemed fine and was controllable, if not a maybe a little sluggish).

After reading about 'more downhaul is a good thing' I recently downhauled and extra cm or 2. The ShearTip looked right, erect, the top panel had some tension to it and the luff was a little wavey....but when I got on the water, I found the sail was very ncontrollable, very skittery and bucking forward and back in the wind....

Any ideas?

While laying on the ground your sail will look floppy but since you are not sailing on land with the sail laying on the ground and not powered up this is not a concern. When you get way powered on the water, look up at the sail and then notice if it looks any better.

Sounds like you were rigged for a normal wind range.

Luff was wavy? Do you mean leech? Sounds like you may have had a little too much DH and maybe too much outhaul as well for the conditions. I sailed my 5.2 recently in overpowering conditions and put so much DH and OH that the sail looked like a floppy board and it sailed great. In less wind however the sail rigged that way will feel twitchy and powerless.

Glenn, I have an NP with the 'Shear Tip' and have also never been able to get that part of the sail to work. Out of curiosity I've watched other folks sailing 'Shear Tipped ' NP's and have never, not once, seen one that appeared to be functional in use, on the water. Rumor has it that some of the Pros back in the days that NP was using 'Shear Tips' sometimes took a box knife to them on the beach and removed them, because the first batten really does all the work.

Glenn, Kevin Ozee of Neil Pryde Maui provided a great explanation of this issue a number of months ago on the neiprydemaui.com forum. I don't know about any searching but you could pose the question there.